Apocrypha

April 10, 2015

This is a guest blog post from Sharon Betsworth (Wimblerly School of Religion, Oklahoma City University). Sharon's first book The Reign of God is Such as These was published in our Library of New Testament Studies in 2010, as was reviewed by JSNT as '... and excellent, enjoyably, and important study'.

We are delighted to have Sharon's new book Children in Early Christian Narratives also within LNTS, and freshly published. See below for Sharon's thoughts on writing and researching the book, and her future research.

'I had a great time writing Children in Early Christian Narratives. The book examines the role of children in the New Testament Gospels and two non-canonical works, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and Protevangelium of James. The idea for Children in Early Christian Narratives came out of the process of turning my dissertation into my first book, The Reign of God is Such as These: A Socio-Literary Analysis of Daughters in the Gospel of Mark (T&T Clark, 2010). I thought of that book as an extension of my interest in women in the Gospels, but before it was even published, I realized I was working in the nascent field of children in the biblical world. I also realized that just as the women’s stories in the Gospels have often been the lesser known stories, so too do few readers “see” the children in the Gospels. For my first book, I did a good deal of research into the lives of adolescent girls in the ancient world. I began focusing on children more specifically in 2009, when I prepared a paper for the Contextual Biblical Interpretation section of the Society of Biblical Literature on “The Child in Matthew 2.”

As I have researched the stories of children in the Gospels, I have become very interested in the lives children in the ancient world. Often times, the view that children were “nobodies” in the ancient world is the primary perspective from which scholars interpret the narratives containing children in the Gospels. But the status of children in the ancient world is more complex than this position suggests. In my book, I discuss the ideology of the paterfamilias and various child-rearing practices that lead some modern people to the conclusion that children were not valued in the ancient world. I also examine the views of elite male writers who often contrast the man they desired to be with the child who they do not want to be. These views of children in the ancient world are countered by evidence that exists demonstrating that children were valued by their families. While I was doing my research, I found it especially interesting to note how similar childhood in the ancient world is to childhood in the 21st century; at the same time children’s lives today are very different from the lives of ancient youngsters.

I especially enjoyed researching and writing the chapters on the two non-canonical Gospels, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) and Protevangelium of James (Pros. Jas). I had not previously worked with either text. IGT contains stories of Jesus’ childhood, while Pros. Jas tellsabout the conception and birth of his mother, Mary, and her childhood through the time she gives birth to Jesus. While a fair amount of scholarly work has been done on the IGT and most recently on children and childhood in IGT, there is less scholarship on the Prot. Jas. There is very little scholarship on either Gospel from a feminist perspective, which is a perspective that I utilize throughout my book.

I would especially like readers of my book to understand how integral children are to each Gospel’s narrative. The children’s stories are easy to overlook; it is easy to not see the children. Yet in the canonical Gospels, children’s interactions with Jesus contribute significantly to each Gospel’s overall themes and portrayal of Jesus. The non-canonical Gospels demonstrate how important the early church understood the childhood of Jesus and of Mary to be.

As I continue working in the field of children in the Gospels, I plan on editing a volume on children in the biblical world more broadly. I hope to collect papers which reflect a variety of methodologies for examining children throughout the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Deuterocanonical books, New Testament and Christian Apocrypha. Of course, I will continue research and write on passages related to children in the New Testament. I had barely finished the book before I found more angles from which to explore a number of Gospel texts!'

September 02, 2013

For the last two-three months I've been working very hard on getting together the image permissions and high resolution files for our illustrated title on Herod next year, 'The True Herod', by the late Geza Vermes. This process is now complete, and I'm delighted to be able to say that the manuscript and the images go across to our production team on Wednesday in order to be made into a book. It's been a real privilege to work on this manuscript, from the first meeting I had back in January with Geza to the long day I spent with Margaret Vermes in July making final decisions about the best versions of the images available to us. The only sadness, of course, is that Geza died before we were able to publish the book. Geza was a great fan of Herod's, as is clear in the book, and was clear in our discussions about him. I'm a bit of a fan myself. In order to whet your appetites for what to expect in the book when it comes out in the new year I'm delighted to post the preface to the book below here now. It certainly describes the book far better than I ever could!

Mosaic at Masada

PREFACE to The True Herod, by Geza Vermes, Bloomsbury 2014

For many years I have been fascinated by the figure of Herod the Great (c. 73 – 4 BCE). Having read and re-read Josephus’ accounts in the Jewish War and Antiquities, and having attempted to discount the pro-Herodian and pro-Hasmonean bias in the two works, I easily reached the conclusion that both the Christian and the Jewish rabbinic traditions have faced us with a caricature of the true Herod. Herod was not an enemy of the Jews, nor was he guilty of the massacre of the babes in Bethlehem as the evangelist Matthew would like his readers to believe. He was heroic and horrible. A genius in politics as well as a giant in architecture and planning, he was at the same time shamefully vindictive towards those he considered potential rivals or opponents, including the close members of his family. He was a typical split personality and his two opposite qualities turned him into a genuine tragic hero. It is amazing that no top class filmmaker has yet discovered these latent potentials and raised him to stardom as they did with his classical contemporaries, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. No doubt they were unable to recognize that the lens of the Christian tradition provided them with a grossly distorted image of the real Herod.

However, a good historian should not allow Herod’s generally known weaknesses to obscure his greatness and tolerate the negative aspects of his complex personality to obfuscate his brilliant and, yes, I will dare put it, his kindness and generosity towards his subjects, Jewish and non-Jewish, in their hours of need. As a recent writer aptly put it, appropriating Graham Greene’s formula, Herod was truly ‘the Third Man’ in the Roman empire of his age, who was preceded only by Augustus and his best friend, Agrippa, with the King of the Jews being the next best and influential friend of both.

In this richly illustrated account, Herod and his successors down to the third generation are set within the framework of Jewish and Graeco-Roman history, with a bird’s eye view back to the age of David (c. 1000 BCE) and a forward look to the aftermath of the Jewish rebellion against Rome in the final decades of the first century CE. The book is meant to all and sundry, with no prior requirement beyond a basic education. I hope the readers will find the pages and pictures that follow instructive and entertaining, in short a good read.

August 13, 2012

I am currently toying with the idea of doing a paperback set of the Vermes/Millar revision of Schurer, a notion which came to me after a letter from Professor Millar a couple of months ago.

Naturally, at the time, I also asked Professor Millar whether he thought a revision might be necessary. Of course he did. But he didn't want to do it himself.

Then the conference season hit and it went off my radar for a bit. Now it's back. We'll almost certainly do a paperback - that seems a no-brainer.

Nevertheless, I'd be interested to know how far people still use Schurer, whether they think a revision is necessary, along what lines such a revision might take, and who might be the best bods to do it.

I'm so interested in these points that I thought it might be fun to put a blog post up about it with the incentive of a prize for entry into the debate.

If you have ideas and comments on these points then please put them below by the end of the month.

The names of all entrants will be in with a chance of winning a prize, and the prizes will be as follows:

First prize: two monographs of choice from either LHBOTS, LNTS or LSTS.

Second prize: one monograph from either LHBOTS, LNTS or LSTS.

Third prize: a paperback.

Right, go to it, comment away. Deadline 31st August.

Gosh it's really going to be frightfully embarassing when no-one responds to this.

April 05, 2011

We have just received an advance copy of The Son of Man in the Parables of Enoch and in Matthew by Leslie W. Walck, another volume in the Jewish and Christian Texts Series. There are a number of translations of the Book of Enoch, within which the Parables are found, though there are a few books that actually analyse it, especially in the context of the Son of Man theme.

Leslie W. Walck examines all the relevant passages that include the term “Son of Man” in both Matthew and the Parables of Enoch. Walck discusses the meaning and origin of the term “Son of Man” and deliberates over the possible influence of the Par. En on Matthew.

Walck examines the date, provenance and social setting for both texts and suggests that Matthew could have known Par. En. He employs various criticisms (i.e. literary, redaction, sociological and narrative), offers sets of characteristics of the Son of Man in both texts, conducts brief examination of the other Gospels, deliberates over similarities in vocabulary, as well as in the pattern of relationships – all these developments and suggestions make this line of thought intriguing and bring fresh conclusions to the on-going discussion in the field.

As I just mentioned – we have received an advance copy of this volume, though it won’t be too long before you can read this book as it is already available in the US. Readers in the UK will be able to purchase Walck’s book in June. I am sure you all will find it a fascinating read.

June 02, 2008

National Geographic have issued a response to the recently published Chronicle of Higher Education article which criticises them for their handling of the Gospel of Judas (see post of May 28). You can read it here.

May 28, 2008

A rather spicy article has appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education (that may be difficult to accept, I know) charting the entire Gospel of Judas saga from the discovery of the gospel through to the Judas conference that took place recently at Rice University. It includes some rather revealing interviews with the leading scholars involved (and most of them aren't afraid to speak their mind in plain language, e.g. "that's a bunch of crap"). Worth a read: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i38/38b00601.htm

Her sessions at SBL San Diego were extremely well attended (they were turning people away at the door - true!) and rumours abound that the controversy generated by her book has prompted National Geographic to consider revising their interpretation...

October 23, 2007

The Thirteenth Apostle was warmly received by the Biblical Archaeology Society in San Antonio this past weekend, where the author, April DeConick, delivered a paper outlining her new interpretation of the Gospel of Judas.

Also speaking was James D. Tabor, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Professor Tabor has subsequently written a glowing endorsment of April's book on his website, The Jesus Dynasty Blog. He is particularly impressed by April's discussion of Gnosticism in Chapter 2, which he says is "one of the dearest expositions on Gnosticism written for a non-specialist reader that I have ever seen". He concludes his review by saying, "I highly recommend this new book and look forward to the continued discussion of this fascinating text."